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Writing children's names in 150 workbooks

“When the kids break up, my work starts immediately. A lot of time goes into gutting our old classrooms and moving our equipment to the new one. Little jobs like pulling staples out of the displays and packing our belongings away can be really time consuming. Just because the work itself isn’t hard, doesn’t mean I’m not working hard.

“There are quite a lot of ‘easy’ tasks, which I enjoy, but take ages to complete. For example, I’ll write the children’s names on over 150 workbooks.

"I also love getting the classroom displays ready. My job is to make them look exciting and engaging, which often involves hours of printing, laminating and stapling.

Teachers have a lot to do over the holidays. (Image: PA)

“Aside from planning lessons and seating arrangements, we have to swot up on our new class members. Before the term starts we have to know their names, whether or not they need additional support, and their subject strengths and weaknesses.

"It’s our job to know everything about them, we sometimes joke in the staffroom that we know our classes better than our husbands!"

A rush on the dentist

“I don’t want it to sound like I don’t get a moment’s peace; the summer holidays do allow for plenty of time to relax in between working and I’m grateful for the break.

"The only trouble is, a lot of our holidays are spent attending routine appointments like doctors and dentists because we can’t book time off during the school term.

"I’ve been to the dentist recently and they told me they’d spent the week checking teacher’s teeth!

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School holidays

The educator went on to say: “We do get a lot of time when we don’t need to be in school, but the school holidays aren’t necessarily true holidays for teachers. We often end up with a mix of flexi work from home, classroom preparation, and some downtime to unwind in between tasks.

"The holiday we get is quite generous; just not as generous as people are lead to believe!”

A teacher's holiday is never a true holiday and the majority of teachers need to rely heavily on their own time management skills if they want to enjoy the break and get their work done - definitely not the easy ride everyone seems to think.